Pitched green roof at renovated part of Botanic Gardens

By Joanne Leow, Channel NewsAsia
15 July 2006

Visitors to the Singapore Botanic Gardens will be able to enjoy a host of new facilities as its renovated Tanglin Core reopens to the public.

Tanglin Core will have a pitched green roof - Singapore's first - that showcases hardy plants like ferns and orchids.

A pilot project, the roof is part of NPark's efforts to use new technology to promote skyrise greenery.

Other high-tech facilities at the Tanglin Core include an orchid breeding and micropropagation lab.

But a sense of history is also important in the Botanic Gardens.

It has a library of 30,000 books and journals dating from 1875.

And its Herbarium, a plant museum that houses over two centuries of accumulated knowledge and plant collections, has attracted international scientists.

There are some 650,000 herbarium specimens at the museum, the oldest from 1790. - CNA/ir

Monkey says...
"Wow this is exciting news. Must visit the newly renovated botanic gardens!"